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EPG seriously flawed - need to fix mappings


IkeTaylor11

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1 hour ago, shdwkeeper said:

Is this happening?  Is Channel Management even on the radar?  Or is it yrs away?

Nah, it's been close to 4 years now and channel management has always been "a few releases away" according to the development team. I'm a large scale user of Emby, with almost 30 active clients, and I use the live TV functionality almost exclusively. I've been begging for simple things, like the ability to unmap a channel, and the response has always been the same. At one point I actually looked forward to seeing new beta releases and reading the change log, but now I don't bother.

Depending on what you're trying to accomplish there might be a fairly simple workaround, other issues not so much. I've been able to get around the issue of unmapping a channel by creating a static XML file that I can map channels with no guide source. Guide sources have an order of preference and the first source takes top priority. So if Emby maps the wrong channel, as long as it's mapped to your static source file it'll use that data instead of a source lower on the list. So there's a few workarounds like this to some of the more annoying issues, but I guess it just depends on what you want to accomplish.

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shdwkeeper

I'm just trying to unmap a channel from the first few guide sources.  I'm not sure what's its using to map the channel, it seems like the channel number first than the name.  I'm used to the DirecTV channel numbering but some of the channel numbers for DirecTV I don't want mapped using their guide as I need a West Coast feed not the East Coast.  The only way to get around that is removing all the guides and starting over with trial and error and renaming the channel with a .1, .2 and adding the guides back hoping it doesn't get auto mapped again.

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shdwkeeper
2 hours ago, cayars said:

Why can't you just remap it to the proper feed?  No need to "unmap" it, just remap it.

Seriously?  You obviously don't know how it works.  If you have multiple feeds, and it gets mapped to the first feed, for whatever reason, you can't remap it. It's stuck to the first feed in order.  I can remap it all day long but all the feeds below that 1st one get ignored, because the feeds take priority in order from top down.

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2 hours ago, shdwkeeper said:

Seriously?  You obviously don't know how it works.  If you have multiple feeds, and it gets mapped to the first feed, for whatever reason, you can't remap it. It's stuck to the first feed in order.  I can remap it all day long but all the feeds below that 1st one get ignored, because the feeds take priority in order from top down.

@shdwkeeperis correct, and while you can certainly change the mapping it has no effect when you do. Emby has a top to bottom order of preference for what sources it uses. If a channel is mapped to a source in the first guide and you map that same channel in a source lower on the list, Emby will still use the top source where the channel is mapped. The only way around this is to have one large guide source for all of your channels. This can be accomplished by merging guide data using mc2xml, which actually works quite well but requires a good deal of initial setup. It also requires that you get your guide data from alternate sources, such as Schedules Direct.

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6 hours ago, shdwkeeper said:

Seriously?  You obviously don't know how it works.  If you have multiple feeds, and it gets mapped to the first feed, for whatever reason, you can't remap it. It's stuck to the first feed in order.  I can remap it all day long but all the feeds below that 1st one get ignored, because the feeds take priority in order from top down.

Yea, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to Live TV.  I've only written all the KB articles about it, remotely help people with it and it's setup daily as well as personally have 32 tuners and 34 EPG sources on my main system. :)

Emby will use what ever the LAST mapping is you make for the channel.  Forget about "looking" at the early/1st guide because it will give you the illusion it's still mapped but trust it to be what you just mapped it to.  Do a guide refresh, then go look at the guide it loads for the channel you just remapped using any guide.

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IkeTaylor11
26 minutes ago, cayars said:

 

Yea, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to Live TV.  I've only written all the KB articles about it, remotely help people with it and it's setup daily as well as personally have 32 tuners and 34 EPG sources on my main system. :)

Emby will use what ever the LAST mapping is you make for the channel.  Forget about "looking" at the early/1st guide because it will give you the illusion it's still mapped but trust it to be what you just mapped it to.  Do a guide refresh, then go look at the guide it loads for the channel you just remapped using any guide.

except Emby actually uses the 1st mapping it finds, not the last. 

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Except it doesn't.  It will use whatever you map it to.  Don't confuse the auto map which will find channels in the order you add the guides to MANUAL mapped which will change the mapping to what you set it to.

NOW after manually mapping channels if you in turn change tuners or guides that may cause problems and you may have to remap again.

The new Live TV in development does channel mapping very differently and will be much easier for both it's auto and manual mapping features. With it you can view a channel and know exactly what guide source the channel is mapped to which you can't easily do in the current version.

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IkeTaylor11

@cayars so any manual mapping to any guide will always take precedence over an auto mapping? Also, does Emby always save the last entry you did the manual mapping for? So, if I map a channel manually to my first guide and then later manually map it to the 3rd guide and then lastly manually map it to my 2nd guide, the data will be from the 2nd guide right? 

 

Will the new mapping system include a feature to unmap manually mapped channels so that auto mapping can take over again? This has always been the biggest issue I have had. 

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shdwkeeper
3 hours ago, cayars said:

Emby will use what ever the LAST mapping is you make for the channel.  Forget about "looking" at the early/1st guide because it will give you the illusion it's still mapped but trust it to be what you just mapped it to.  Do a guide refresh, then go look at the guide it loads for the channel you just remapped using any guide.

I'm not meaning to be rude at all, just frustrated after adding guides and removing them over and over, and no one has ever mentioned that your last manual mapped channel overrides all others.

I will try the Manual mapping you suggested and try this once again.  So, if what you are saying works, than this scenario should work.

So I have a .m3u with channels in it that I have modified to reflect DirecTVs naming.  My first guide data is: OTA, than DirecTV (los angeles), than Spectrum. The OTA guide data Auto maps the locals fine, the DirecTV guide Auto maps basically everything since the naming scheme is the same, but some of the Channels in the .m3u are West Coast Feeds, like VH1P which DirecTV doesn't have, so I have to use Spectrum guide data for that.  So If I manually map that channel with the Spectrum Guide data it will work? Even though it got mapped above it with DirecTV guide?

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1 hour ago, IkeTaylor11 said:

@cayars so any manual mapping to any guide will always take precedence over an auto mapping? Also, does Emby always save the last entry you did the manual mapping for? So, if I map a channel manually to my first guide and then later manually map it to the 3rd guide and then lastly manually map it to my 2nd guide, the data will be from the 2nd guide right? 

 

Will the new mapping system include a feature to unmap manually mapped channels so that auto mapping can take over again? This has always been the biggest issue I have had. 

Yes, it should use the guide in this case from the 2nd guide since that's the last mapping to be performed.

Yes, it will allow you to unmap channels.  It also does mapping differently so it's much easier to understand what things are mapped to.

18 minutes ago, shdwkeeper said:

I'm not meaning to be rude at all, just frustrated after adding guides and removing them over and over, and no one has ever mentioned that your last manual mapped channel overrides all others.

I will try the Manual mapping you suggested and try this once again.  So, if what you are saying works, than this scenario should work.

So I have a .m3u with channels in it that I have modified to reflect DirecTVs naming.  My first guide data is: OTA, than DirecTV (los angeles), than Spectrum. The OTA guide data Auto maps the locals fine, the DirecTV guide Auto maps basically everything since the naming scheme is the same, but some of the Channels in the .m3u are West Coast Feeds, like VH1P which DirecTV doesn't have, so I have to use Spectrum guide data for that.  So If I manually map that channel with the Spectrum Guide data it will work? Even though it got mapped above it with DirecTV guide?

It does unless you add/remove additional guides.  That's when things get a bit strange and sometimes you can overwrite your existing work.  So if possible load all your channels and guides before doing any manual mapping.

If you want to try a simple test add a brand new guide source from anywhere then map your existing ABC, NBC, CBS stations to the exact same FOX station from the 3rd (new guide).  After you refresh the guide and go and look at your lineup the ABC, NBC & CBS stations should all show the same thing which is the FOX guide. :)  But something simple like that will show that the manually mapped channels from the last guide added do in fact work.  You can then remove the "test guide" and map those 3 channels back to their proper source and again take a look at they will be back to what they should be since you've manually mapped them again.

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shdwkeeper
24 minutes ago, cayars said:

If you want to try a simple test add a brand new guide source from anywhere then map your existing ABC, NBC, CBS stations to the exact same FOX station from the 3rd (new guide).  After you refresh the guide and go and look at your lineup the ABC, NBC & CBS stations should all show the same thing which is the FOX guide. :)  But something simple like that will show that the manually mapped channels from the last guide added do in fact work.  You can then remove the "test guide" and map those 3 channels back to their proper source and again take a look at they will be back to what they should be since you've manually mapped them again.

Ok, I will try this in a little bit.  Thanks for explaining this.  I don't think this is documented anywhere and that is why folks have no idea that this mapping is working, or how it works.

When does the NEW mapping system come out, so we can try this?

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shdwkeeper
3 hours ago, cayars said:

If you want to try a simple test add a brand new guide source from anywhere then map your existing ABC, NBC, CBS stations to the exact same FOX station from the 3rd (new guide).  After you refresh the guide and go and look at your lineup the ABC, NBC & CBS stations should all show the same thing which is the FOX guide. :)  But something simple like that will show that the manually mapped channels from the last guide added do in fact work.  You can then remove the "test guide" and map those 3 channels back to their proper source and again take a look at they will be back to what they should be since you've manually mapped them again.

@cayars Ok, I tried this and it didn't work.  I have 4 data providers.  I tried to manually map channel 9.2 to ESPN using guide #3 (USA-CA04890-X), refreshed guide and its still the same data that the OTA for 9.2 supplies.  It should look just like the ESPN guide now, according to your post.  9.2 still says Girls High School Basketball and not what ESPN is saying.  Here are screenshots.

guide1.thumb.PNG.9308a8ccf3ae65a0ff946c2af707a08a.PNGguide2.PNG.4a4036a2d7d004e9a3e0667dec93f84b.PNG

guide3.PNG.56aa52c0714b4053a8bff7ca96f42abf.PNGguide4.thumb.PNG.ede2ad507ad9c1932928dcbc29264366.PNG

Edited by shdwkeeper
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Did you perform a full guide refresh and wait for it to finish before looking at the guide?

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OK did a remote with shdwkeeper and saw exactly what he was talking about. Any new mapping taking place on a guide other than the first guide to map it doesn't work.  The mapping shows in the config but is not used in the grid and the log file shows it loading data from the original mapping and not the last mapping (exactly what was stated by users).

I most definitely get different results on my system then he does.  I wonder if it's a difference in builds on NAS vs Windows but I'll investigate further.  

Good news is this functionality changes for the good in the version in development so hopefully the pain of mapping with multiple guides will be short lived!

shdwkeeper PM me the livetv.xml file when you get a chance.

Thanks,

Carlo

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shdwkeeper

@cayars I just sent you the livetv.xml.  I wonder if this is just affecting Linux systems?  Since the QNAP is technically Linux

Edited by shdwkeeper
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